Birth of a Legacy
by Corrinth
Summary: Ilehana a.k.a. Vixen - daughter of the great Charles Xavier - tells a story. The story that has somehow been lost in a timeline that is 48 stories long 46 excluding movies . This is how it all began, this is the birth of the legacy that is the X-Men...


Disclaimer : I own none of the following characters. All the X-Men save Ilehana are property of Marvel. These days Ilehana belongs to no-one but herself, but once she was mine. Raven and Blaze star courtesy of Lamby.

Author's Note : This is a much longer re-write of my fiction resentment. Something I've been thinking of writing for some time, the prologue was originally an epilogue to "No Place Like Home", however I decided it fit better here. Basically this is the tale of how Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters came to be, how the legacy of the X-Men began.

**Prologue**

A hush falls.

Why, on this night of all nights, must I be the story-teller? On this night, on the anniversary of my birth, must I tell the tale that has haunted me throughout my life? It seems though, as all eyes turn expectantly towards me, there is no escaping my fate. It is only as I survey them all that I realise how few of them know the story, how few of them understand how it is that my father began the legacy that many of them now own a share in. My eyes take in those about me, a single unit subtly divided into smaller groups. It would take too long to name them all and how they came to be amongst our number. They are my friends, my family, my students and their teachers, and I love each and every one of them.

I find myself looking into the red-on-black eyes of Raven, daughter of Gambit and Blaze. It is for her that I tell this story, and if I had it my way it would be for her alone. I am not one for public speeches, and the ranks of the school have swelled almost innumerably in the years since I was last here. In finding her eyes, in holding the gaze of the young adult that follows my every move, that worships the ground I walk upon because of the tales - no doubt exaggerated - that her parents have fed her, I can at least in part forget how many people are avidly listening. Who knows what Blaze and Gambit have told their offspring, but now I must tell her everything I know in an attempt, however vain, to sate her curiosity.

It's hard to say where the story of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters begins. Did it begin when Charles Xavier discovered he was a telepath, when his human step-father tried to pilfer the fortune that my father was heir to? Or did it begin when my maternal grandparents - human, it should be noted - spurned their daughter because she married a mutant? In truth I cannot answer, for I never bothered to ask. I do know, however, that because of the reaction of his in-laws, Charles Xavier and his friend, Eric Lensherr, began to closely monitor the growing tensions between the human and mutant kind. There was a war brewing - a war that could easily eradicate the population of the planet - the first bubbles were forming, but who knew when the first one would strike the surface and burst to release its chaos into our world?

Xavier, by now a Professor and much respected scientist, had dreams. He had dreams of a world where mutants and humans would live side by side in peace and harmony, as he lived with his wife. He had dreams of a team of people who could monitor those who would upset that balance, a team who used gadgetry and even mutant powers, to keep peace in the world. Eric Lensherr offered him a chance to build towards those dreams. Together, they began to design and build Cerebro, from the belly of which Xavier could more closely monitor the Earth's human and mutant populations using his gift of telepathy. Gift, not mutation, my father saw his abilities as an honour rather than a curse - to this day all students of the Xavier institute are taught the same.

Cerebro was not quickly built. It took many years to excavate and support a cavern beneath the Xavier mansion large enough to house the great and infamous machine. And in that time, my mother gave birth to a baby girl, to me, and the Xavier's became a family. My parents, I am told, were happier then than they had ever been. And I? I grew strong on my mother's milk and my father's wisdom, lapped up their kindness and attention, and both parents waited to see what mutation I had been gifted with.

Before three years had passed, my father was already weaning me into the world of science. I am told that one of my first accomplishments was to recite, in front of my parents, my Godfathers Eric and Hank McCoy, the first forty elements of the periodic table without mistake. I do not remember the incident, but I can still recite every element from memory. I could speak five languages before I could walk, but I think my father was perhaps most proud of what a powerful telepath I was becoming. We later discovered that most mutants do not reveal their mutations until puberty, but by the age of five I was having able telepathic conversations with not only my father but also the animals in the world about me. My father knew then that my telepathy was not to be my only gift.

But I digress from the true story. I added that piece purely for Raven, whose eyes beg for details not just about Cerebro and the legacy of the X-Men but about my own life. As it is, the next part of my story still tears me apart inside; I can barely bring myself to speak of it. I bear the guilt of an innocent child, the blame of a father forced to choose between his wife and his daughter, I carry the weight of those feelings inside of me and the years have not lightened that burden.

I think perhaps that this is where the legacy of the X-Men begins...


End file.
